Us vs Them

I shared a quote the other day that pretty much sums up how I feel about all this political crap I see posted online lately.  

That right there, isn't it?  In the words of the generation of today.  Boom.  Oh snap.  That’s it.  Period.  

Okay.  Complete sentences here we come.  But really, that meme does wrap up how I feel about pretty much every political post I see posted on social media.  So little of it is aimed at actually making positive change for our country, bringing our country together, exposing dangers to our country or saying how we feel about our worries for our country.  Instead the main focus is win, belittle, judge and point fingers.  And while doing that, if someone dares stand up for themselves, we don’t check ourselves and say “hey maybe they are right and I shouldn’t have acted that way”, we go out of our way to yell louder and come up with “harsher” comebacks. It’s all so incredibly sad.  

It doesn’t have to be us vs them.  I’m a card carrying (figuratively) liberal.  That doesn’t mean that I don’t agree with some conservatives on various issues.  That doesn’t mean I can’t understand their point of view.  It means I agree MORE with the liberal side of things.  That wasn’t always me.  There was a time when I voted for Bush.  When I could have taken any online quiz and would have found myself more aligned with the right than the left.  But I grew as a person.  I was brought down and went through my own personal struggles and it changed me.  It made me judge others less and feel for others more.  I stopped wanting everyone to take care of themselves and realized how thankful I was for everyone who had helped me and I wanted to help others.  I saw things that changed who I was and how I thought.  And I listened.  I researched.  I read.  I grew.  Do I think that my growth was the right way?  I can’t say that.  I can say it was the right way for me.  It was the way that most aligned with my Christian faith.  It is the way that aligns with who I am and who I want to be as a person.  Am I there yet?  Heck no.  But I will keep trying.

What I struggle with on social media is not someone having a different opinion than I do.  I struggle with the spewing of names and hate that seems to accompany it for so many people.  Why can’t we post a simple topic about how you are proud of the president without also calling people who have a differing opinion “snowflakes”, “pussy", "loser, "cry baby", and so many more. Is there a reason you can't state your opinion without belittling others? I'm not sure if others are like me, but I'd venture to guess that most people, like me, stop listening when you start calling them names. If you really want change, really want to make a difference, really want people to listen to your opinion, act less like an asshole. Act like a rational, reasonable human being who doesn't think they are better than someone else and realizes that others can have a difference of opinion.

That's my biggest fear about our current president. I have my concerns about a lot of the things he's done. But the biggest is his encouragement of this us vs them attitude. He has us so busy arguing with each other and choosing sides, that we've missed the biggest "side" of all. Mankind. Environment. Common decency. Kindness. Respect. I would hope that any friend of mine on social media would be on the same "side" of those issues as I am, regardless of political affiliations.